Crater Spotting

[Scooot]

Armed with Sky Safari's moon map and a Philips Star Atlas I spent quite a while trying to identify craters on the moon tonight. I used Sky Safari mostly as it showed me the terminator. and the dob on the EQ Platform to reduce nudging with my 10mm giving 120x.

I flipped the view so the view on the screen matched the eyepiece and worked my way up the terminator for over an hour. I had quite a good view although It was a bit hazy but I found it much harder than I thought to identify everything. There must be a knack that comes with experience to judging the distances and comparing the view with the map. I spent ages trying to pick out Fourier, Fourier A and Vieta, just to the west of mare humorum, not because they were difficult to see but because of my poor map reading. I finished off near Tycho and Clavious when a bank of cloud spoiled the fun.

I shall practice some more another night.

[Moonshane]

Just done a very similar thing. Got lovely views of Shickard which dominated the area I was observing in,  and then tracked down Lehman, Drebbel, Clausius, Schiller, Wargentin, Nogerath, Bayer, Rost, Weigel and the lovely trio of Segner, Zucchius and Bettinus. Two highlights for me were the huge depression and 'black hole' formed by the crater Bailly and also the wonderful shadows between Phocylides and Nasmyth. Also a few new doubles tonight given the moony conditions. 

I use the very cheap 'Moon, Mars and Venus' by Hamlyn by use the maps of the great lunar cartographer Antonin Rukl. Highly recommend for following chains of craters on the moon.

[Scooot]

I probably spent too much time slightly in land so to speak as I found it easier to identify these. I was using these to help gauge my latitude so I could more easily identify the partly lit ones on the edge. I'll look out for bailey, cloud was starting to build as I got up there. I did have a good look between Schiller and Schikard as well though.

[Scooot]

Just had another hour and a bit before cloud hit. I increased the mag this time to 150 for the last half of the session as it wasn't so hazy.

It still took me ages to get my bearings but after much studying, and toing and froing between map and eyepiece I finally worked out what the major craters were from Tycho to the edges. There were two well lit craters that looked great that I wanted to particularly identify. One was to the far right of Tycho on the edge and the other right above. I finally sussed it from what looked like a little heart shape crater just to the right and slightly below Tycho which turned out to be Hainzel and Hainzel A. Just below these are a row of about 4 small craters that point to Schickard and once I'd identified this it was much easier going around the edge.

So the well lit one to the far right I think was Inghirami, and the large one on the top was Bailey and Bailey B. Seeing as Shane had mentioned this yesterday I feel a bit daft taking so long to identify it but I got there in the end and it did look good with the shadows. It's a shame I can't remember the layout from one night to the next but hopefully I'll get better.

[John]

I've been having fun looking at the fully illuminated segment of the Moon for a change. I've been tracking down features that I normally observe partially illuminated when they are near the terminator. Under direct lighting they take on a very different appearence. I like the way many craters have really bright inner ramparts which create a shining rim around the slightly darker floor. Another interesting effect is that some craters seem to have a darker "apron" around them which particularly stands out when said crater is located amidst the rays eminating from some of the principle large craters such as Tycho and Copernicus. I've also paid Messier A & B a visit as they are one of my favourite lunar features under any lighting.

Although I normally observe the moon without a filter I have to admit that I'm finding the recently acquired Baader Neodymium filter is helpful in this excersize. It seems to enhance the contrast variations across the illuminated terrain.

[Scooot]

I've been having fun looking at the fully illuminated segment of the Moon for a change. I've been tracking down features that I normally observe partially illuminated when they are near the terminator. Under direct lighting they take on a very different appearence. I like the way many craters have really bright inner ramparts which create a shining rim around the slightly darker floor. Another interesting effect is that some craters seem to have a darker "apron" around them which particularly stands out when said crater is located amidst the rays eminating from some of the principle large craters such as Tycho and Copernicus. I've also paid Messier A & B a visit as they are one of my favourite lunar features under any lighting.

Although I normally observe the moon without a filter I have to admit that I'm finding the recently acquired Baader Neodymium filter is helpful in this excersize. It seems to enhance the contrast variations across the illuminated terrain.

I've just looked up the two Messiers, they do look different so I'll definitely hunt those down.

Does the baader neodymium filter help with the brightness as well? I was just using a neutral density filter this evening.

[John]

.......Another interesting effect is that some craters seem to have a darker "apron" around them which particularly stands out when said crater is located amidst the rays eminating from some of the principle large craters such as Tycho and Copernicus......

The little crater Copernicus H close to the main Compernicus shows this dark halo of material. Originally thought to be of volcanic rather than impact origin, close examnination by Lunar Orbiter 5 in 1967 showed that it was of impact origin after all but the darker halo was caused by basaltic material excavated from deeper in the the crust than usual. 

[John]

Does the baader neodymium filter help with the brightness as well? I was just using a neutral density filter this evening.

Yes it does help with that too although I don't normally use a filter even with my 12" scope (which I'm using tonight).

[Scooot]

I had a look at messier and messier A but they were a bit small at 150x to see much. I tried the Barlow but that was too much so the the view wasn't much better. messier A looked a little like a comet which was quite a nice effect and they did stand out well in the Mare.

I had a great view of what looked like a mountain range between Aristoteles and Eratosthenes. I spent a long time around Mons Hadley and Rima Hadley mainly because it was right next to the Apollo 15 landing site. I was fascinated that I could see the spot men walked on the moon. This led me to crater Lansberg B which looked like a pot hole bunker, and next to this is the spent rocket booster from Apollo 13, just as fascinating.

Another great couple of hours, but even with the moon filter the full moon was very bright.

[John]

If you can get a bit more magnficiation on them you might be able to make out that Messier has a pair of dark tracks running across it, rather like tyre tracks to my eye

[Qualia]

Fascinating thread and great insights, guys. I was out a little tonight -  in between clouds - and although I had a lovely peaceful time with the super big bright Moon, I still haven't figured how you guys can remember all those names and positions of the craters. That really is a very occult science and technique If its clear tomorrow, I'll try to take out my Moon atlas and see what I can find.

[Scooot]

Fascinating thread and great insights, guys. I was out a little tonight -  in between clouds - and although I had a lovely peaceful time with the super big bright Moon, I still haven't figured how you guys can remember all those names and positions of the craters. That really is a very occult science and technique If its clear tomorrow, I'll try to take out my Moon atlas and see what I can find.

I wish I could remember the names, every time I write a name I have to look it up to check the spelling several times -

I've found Sky Safari Pros moon map on my iPad is better for me than my moon Atlas. Being able to zoom in and out is a great help to getting my bearings and adding or removing the labels is also helpful. As I pan in or out more or less names show up. The screen shot below is from just now displayed in colour mode, in monogram the green names don't show which I'd find a bit annoying if they were visible all the time. The only thing I've found a bit confusing is that the craters on the map look more like mountains to me than craters which makes it harder to recognise what's what.

I've found it a bit addictive and have started to remember a few of the major craters now and it's amazing how time passes whilst looking. There's more gazing available as well as it always seems to be clearer when the moons up. -

[RC4U]

and it still gets me sometimes with my 1.25" EP and images are left to right then in my 2" its ll correct..and then some scopes are upside down so navigating is an art...

[Scooot]

Monogram for heavens sake, I can't even claim it was a typo!

My crater spotting has led me to looking at the space program's landing sites etc so I was trying to pinpoint as best I can the Luna 2 landing site. I didn't know much about it before tonight but found out it was launched by the Soviet Union and was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the moon in September, 55 years ago, same year I was born.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_2

Presumably it's still there, I don't suppose it's changed much either without any weather on the moon?

The screen shot below shows the flipped view to match my Dob. It was fairly easy to locate the three main craters, and then I was trying to see as much of the nearby terrain as possible. Still at 150x I could just make out the two little rocky patches at the top left of Autolycus, and shading around the area of the landing site. For scale Autolycos has a diameter of 39km.